Butter is still bad for your heart, health experts say

When I compared Smart Balance Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, above, to Original Smart Balance in June, I overlooked another reason to buy the former: Less saturated fat. Reducing saturated fat can be good for your heart, if you replace it with unsaturated fat, according to Consumer Reports On Health.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Headlines such as "Butter is Back" in The New York Times and "gleeful" news articles urging people to eat more bacon were premature, according to Consumer Reports On Health, a monthly newsletter.

Those reports were based on a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine that "suggests ... saturated fat, long thought to be a major contributor to heart disease by raising LDL (bad) cholesterol, isn't a dietary demon after all," the July 2014 newsletter states.

"The study got a lot of us hoping we could chow down on buttery croissants and fried chicken without any risk to our hearts," Consumer Reports said.

Not me. I never use artery clogging butter or cream, especially not in my cooking, which relies exclusively on heart-healthy extra-virgin olive oil. 

And when I eat out, I ask the kitchen to use olive oil, not butter, to prepare my food. 

I looked at several brands of butter at ShopRite in Paramus the other day. Saturated fat in one tablespoon was 35% to 37% -- more than four times the saturated fat in Smart Balance Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Many missed the 'correction'

British researchers looked at 72 previous studies "on the role of fat in heart disease and concluded that the evidence didn't support the advice to cut back on saturated fat, which comes primarily from animal sources [meat, poultry and cheese], and to eat more saturated fat, which comes mainly from vegetables, nuts and fish," the editors said.

"Well, not so fast. That report got a lot of attention, but less noticed was the authors' correction a week later.

"Turns out that when it came to unsaturated fats -- the kind in olive oil and fish -- they had goofed. Their correction shows that consuming that kind of fat does help protect against heart disease." 

Grilled wild sockeye salmon with a reduction of extra-virgin olive oil, chopped fresh garlic, diced organic tomatoes, red wine, organic chicken stock and fresh herbs. The fish was $10.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale, and most of the other ingredients also came from the Hackensack warehouse store.

Extra-virgin oil also forms the basis of a pasta sauce for organic whole-wheat fusilli with sardines. After reheating leftovers, you can drizzle more olive oil on the pasta at the table.

Two organic brown eggs fried sunny side up in extra-virgin olive oil with smoked wild salmon and Aleppo pepper. I served them with garlic mashed sweet potatoes, also made with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings.

Eat more unsaturated fat

Consumer Reports says the study by British researchers "had other shortcomings to muddy the message about dietary fat."

"For example," the newsletter states, "our experts say that it left out research showing that the benefits of cutting back on saturated fat depend on what you replace it with.

"If you stop eating butter and cheese but start eating a lot of sugar or processed foods, you're unlikely to do your heart or your health in general much good," says Maxine Siegel, R.D., who heads Consumer Reports research on food and nutrition.

Considerable research shows that if saturated fat is replaced with unsaturated fats, the risk of heart disease goes down, Consumer Reports says, adding:

"It still pays to watch your intake of saturated fat, Siegel says. "Aim for no more than 7% to 10% of total calories from the stuff (about 140 to 200 calories, if you consume 2,000 calories per day).

A tablespoon of ShopRite butter contains 100 calories, all from fat.

"But equally important is to replace saturated fat with heart-healthy alternatives, such as unsaturated fats, fruit, vegetables and whole grains -- not refined carbs such as those in white bread, sugar and many snacks."

Drugs and tests

Consumer Reports on Health also discussed other research on preventing heart disease:

"Aggressive new guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology mean that 13 million more Americans -- including almost all men ages 60 to 75 and more than half of women in that age range -- should now take a cholesterol-lowering drug, such as atorvastatin (Lipitor and generic) or rosuvastatin (Crestor).

"A number of leading medical groups have questioned the usefulness of several heart-disease screening tests, including EKGs and exercise stress tests, long part of an annual checkup for millions of Americans, as well as newer and often heavily advertised tests, such as CT scans of the heart."

Jazz, food, city views and more vacation photos from Montreal

A man on stilts amusing the crowd during Montreal's annual International Jazz Festival, widely acknowledged as the best in the world. The 11-day festival -- the French Canadian city's 35th -- wrapped up on July 6. 

There are free and ticketed performances 12 hours a day outdoors, in clubs, and in small and large concert spaces. This group gave a free concert of New Orleans jazz.

Every style of vocal and instrumental jazz, blues and funk can be heard at free concerts, such as this one by a big band.

Montreal pianist and composer Alain Lefevre and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra performed Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," Bernstein's "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story" and other compositions on June 26 in a packed Maison Symphonique, drawing standing ovations. Members of the orchestra tuned up before the concert, above. The hall opened in 2011.

Lefevre also performed as part of a jazz trio. On July 1, I heard jazz pianist Brad Mehldau in a solo concert at Maison Symphonique.

Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves wowing the audience on June 27 in Theatre

Maisonneuve, one of the major concert halls grouped together on the Place des Arts, similar to Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

A singer named Buika, an African woman who was born in Spain and now lives in Miami, performing with her flamenco-inspired trio on June 29 in Theatre Maisonneuve. Her many fans in the audience sang along with her. On July 1, we returned to the same hall for a wonderful concert by jazz singer Stacey Kent, a New Jersey native.

The Little School of Jazz entertaining children and their parents at one of their daily performances inside Complexe Desjardins, above and below, part of a vast underground network of malls, supermarkets, office buildings, hotels and subway stations in Montreal.

Ty Tyler, vocalist with the soul band Vintage Trouble, is the reincarnation of James Brown, and he packed them in for a free outdoor concert on July 1 that saw him leave the stage and climb one of the light and camera towers in the plaza.

Diana Ross, above and below, gave a sold-out concert on July 3 in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, but her strong voice often was drowned out by her big band, which included a Latin percussionist. She sang only one song from "Lady Sings the Blues," the 1972 film in which she played jazz singer Billie Holiday.

Diana Ross also didn't address the audience very much, in contrast to her daughter, Rhonda Ross, who opened for her with a small band and three back-up singers. Rhonda Ross spoke in perfect French to the mostly French-speaking audience and sang half of a song in that language, drawing a roar of approval.

A free concert and an appreciative audience on a mild evening in Montreal's Place des Arts, above and below, as seen from the terrace of the Hyatt Regency, the headquarters hotel for the annual festival.

Bistro SAQ is one of the pop-up restaurants on festival grounds.

Montreal has a visible homeless population. Not far from where this man was sleeping downtown, another homeless man in heavily stained clothing was reaching into the large garbage cans inside a Burger King, searching for something edible. We saw a young woman in baggy skinny jeans panhandling drivers stopped on University Street.

Bicycle lanes downtown carry two-way traffic, in contrast to those in Manhattan. The island of Montreal is larger than Manhattan island, but fewer people live there and traffic congestion never approaches the nightmarish proportions in New York.

This 1985 sculpture, called "The Illuminated Crowd," draws a lot of attention from pedestrians in downtown Montreal. 

One of the entrances to Montreal's Chinatown, which seems to have as many Vietnamese restaurants as Chinese ones. One restaurant we wanted to visit was Orange Rouge, which serves Thai, Korean, Chinese and Japanese dishes at 106 De La Gauchetiere ouest, but we ran out of time.

Want Chinese roast duck for dinner?

One of the many Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown, below.

Montreal's Jean Talon Market is the only one I know that offers free samples of fruits and vegetables, but no toothpicks.

Prince Edward Island oysters on the half-shell are $2.50 to $3 Canadian each, if you want to eat them at this counter in Jean Talon.

Across from the oyster bar, a fish market offers live lobsters for $10.99 Canadian a pound and also sells fried smelts and other seafood that can be eaten at picnic tables.

Restaurants, charcuteries and other food shops line streets surrounding Jean Talon.

Hanging flower pots and street signs in Montreal's Outremont section, near Vanhorne, a restaurant with "cuisine du marche" or "cooking from the market."

A Vietnamese restaurant outside of Chinatown.

One of two large electric fireplaces at a McDonald's in a service area on Route 15, not far from Saint Sauveur, Quebec.

A World Cup-themed Big Mac, which contains mystery meat in any language. McDonald's is the "official restaurant" of the FIFA World Cup, the international soccer competition.

Travelers line up to order at McDonald's.

Hotel de Ville or City Hall in Old Montreal.

Old Montreal slopes down to the Saint Lawrence River, below.

From Old Montreal, tourists can see the island where a Formula 1 race is held every June. It can be reached by Montreal's Metro or subway.

Metro cars run on rubber tires, making them quieter inside and out than Manhattan's subway, though Montreal's system isn't as extensive. A single ride costs $3 Canadian.

Eaton Center downtown is one of the city's enclosed malls linked by the subway.

 

A passageway in Complexe Desjardins, which includes a mall, food court, hotel, office buildings, major concerts halls and a subway station, Place des Arts. On July 2, I heard jazz pianist Randy Weston and saxophonist Billy Harper in Cinquieme Salle, a small concert space off of this passageway. Weston, who was heavily influenced by trips to Africa, told the audience nature was the first orchestra.

A valet parking attendant in the Complexe Desjardins, which has a multilevel garage with about 1,000 spaces.

The KPMG Tower in downtown Montreal.

A church spire reflected in glass sheathing an office building.

A sign on a Montreal hospital. Cardiac teams have their work cut out for them in view of the rich French diet. In some restaurants, servers are amused when you ask for food cooked without artery clogging butter and cream, assuring you only "a little is used." 

Costco's 64-ounce Tropicana Orange Juice is history

The 64-ounce cartons of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack have been replaced by 59-ounce plastic bottles -- like the ones that have been sold in ShopRite and other supermarkets for years.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the passing of Tropicana's 100% Florida Orange Juice in half-gallon cartons at Costco Wholesale, and the short Summer Can Can Sale at Shop Rite.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

First, I saw the "new" Tropicana container in the July 2014 edition of The Costco Connection magazine.

Then, my wife brought them home from our Hackensack warehouse store instead of the familiar 64-ounce cartons -- a full half-gallon that hasn't been sold in supermarkets for several years.

But Costco also adjusted the price downward, keeping the cost at about the same 4.5 cents an ounce.

My wife paid $10.79 on Wednesday for four 59-ounce plastic bottles of Tropicana, compared to $11.59 for four 64-ounce cartons in June.

Like the carton, the new plastic bottle has an inner seal.

But the new container and packaging means you'll have to deal with recycling cardboard, a hard plastic bottle and cap, and plastic shrink wrap.

Now, it will be far easier to compare the price of Tropicana at Costco and when it is on sale in supermarkets to see which has the best deal.

Can't Can't Sale

The Summer Can Can Sale is in its second and last week at ShopRite in Paramus.

That seems shorter than previous Summer Can Can Sales.

No real bargains jumped out at me.

ShopRite's 100% extra-virgin olive oil from Italy is $7.99 for a liter bottle -- $2 or $3 higher than at past Can Can Sales.

I tried to compare the price of Adirondack Seltzer in 12-ounce cans, 20-ounce bottles and liter bottles, but one of the price signs was missing.

I bought six 12-ounce pints of Jersey Fresh Blueberries twice this week for $6.99, and Bing Cherries for $2.99 a pound, but I'm not sure they are part of the sale.

Update

A ShopRite flier with my newspaper today (July 12) shows the Summer Can Can Sale continues next week.

That means I was misinformed by an employee at the Paramus ShopRite who said it was ending this week.

Dining in and dining out: A welcome return to the familiar

One of the first dishes I prepared at home after returning from a vacation in Montreal was a gooey frittata with egg whites, sliced Swiss cheese, shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, plum tomatoes and pesto, all from Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've been having fun looking in our refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, and preparing meals at home after eight days of eating out in Montreal restaurants.

Some of the wonderfully rich food we ate on vacation undoubtedly contained butter and cream, two things I never cook with.

Now, I'm back to organic quinoa, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta, wild salmon, a simple green salad with every dinner, lots of fruit, reduced-fat cheeses and cooking with extra-virgin olive oil.

Organic whole-wheat capellini with organic diced tomatoes, chopped fresh garlic, capers and anchovies. For a pound of pasta, you need a lot of liquid so I also used a 32-ounce bottle of Classico pasta sauce, red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, red-pepper flakes and dried herbs. I also rinsed the capers and anchovies to reduce sodium in the dish.

Use a big pot if you want to, but you'll need only a few inches of water to boil a pound of capellini, also known as angel-hair pasta, and never salt the water. There is plenty of sodium in your other ingredients, especially if you use bottled pasta sauce.

Whole whiting is an inexpensive wild-caught fish with a center spine and a minimum of other bones, making it ideal for picking up and eating like fried chicken. Here, I served the fried fish with leftover organic quinoa prepared in an electric rice cooker with a can of organic diced tomatoes, salt, and olive and sesame oils. My wife bought the fish for $3.99 a pound at the H Mart in Englewood.

I had three bottles of Archer Farms Roasted Salsa Verde from Target in my kitchen cabinet. The mild salsa, made with tomatillos, jalapeno pepppers and green chiles, is ideal as a sauce for leftover organic quinoa, added before you reheat it in a microwave, above, or spooned onto a simple egg-white omelet with reduced-fat cheese in the last minutes of cooking, below.

Unlike bottled green salsas made in Mexico, Archer Farms Roasted Salsa Verde contains sugar.

Fresh wild sockeye salmon, cut into serving pieces, poaching in Roasted Salsa Verde, which serves as both a cooking medium and a sauce for rice, quinoa, pasta or other side dish. I added salt and optional Aleppo pepper to the fish before I put them into the boiling salsa and covered the pan, cooking them for about 8 minutes. Also optional is fresh lime juice added to the salsa before heating it up. 

When I plated the fish with reheated leftover quinoa, I added chopped oregano and mint from our garden, above and below.

My wife bought the wild sockeye salmon at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Tuesday for $10.99 a pound. The label didn't specify where in the United States or which river the fish comes from. Tonight, I ate cold leftover salmon and salsa with ripe peach slices.

This morning, I enjoyed one of my favorite breakfasts, pasta and eggs, in this case leftover whole-wheat capellini and two organic brown eggs, sunny side up, from Costco Wholesale with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, Aleppo pepper and chopped oregano, mint and basil from outdoor and indoor plants.

Six 12-ounce pints of sweet Jersey Fresh Blueberries -- called a "flat" -- are on sale for $6.99 through Saturday at the ShopRite in Paramus. One of the produce guys said the blueberries can be frozen in a Ziploc bag, and thawed out on the counter overnight. I'm trying that. Golden pineapples are two for $5 and a half-gallon of ShopRite Lactose Free Milk is on sale for $3.29, a savings of 20 cents.

Complete dinner for $10

The first restaurant meal my wife wanted after we returned from Montreal was Korean soft tofu, with a fresh egg, four side dishes and steamed rice.

At So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, the place-mat menu lists the complete meal for $9.99. On the check, it is rounded up to $10 and includes the tax.

Soft tofu is addictive, and you can order it as spicy or as mild as you want.

The stew is brought to the table with your choice of meat, seafood, kimchi or soybeans, bubbling furiously, and a fresh egg is provided for poaching in the steaming broth.

My Rich Soybean Soft Tofu contained whole soybeans.

Rich Soybean Soft Tofu at So Gong Dong in Palisades Park.

Cabbage kimchi is one of the four side dishes that come with the meal, and you can ask for as much as you can eat. Hot or cold tea also is included.

Pickled radish and jalapeno pepper.

Besides soft tofu, we also ordered a seafood pancake ($12), but took most of it home. The simple dining room has tables to accommodate multigenerational Korean families.

The expanded place-mat menu also offers pork and beef barbecue, dumplings, ramyun, bibimbap and other traditional Korean dishes.

So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., 2nd Floor, Palisades Park; 1-201-313-5550. Open 7 days. Free parking on side streets. 

Other So Gong Dongs are in Manhattan and Hartsdale, N.Y.